3 Signs Your Travel Credit Card Is a Waste of Money

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The top travel cards can have annual fees of $400 or more. If you notice these signs, you may not be getting your money’s worth. 

There are some truly awesome travel rewards cards out there. I have more than one, and I love them all. But just because I have the warm and fuzzies doesn’t mean I wouldn’t get rid of them if they stopped being worth the money.

And as great as travel cards are, I certainly don’t recommend them for everyone. There are a few warning signs that indicate your travel card isn’t the right fit. Are any of these you?

1. You don’t travel

Alright, this one might be a bit on the nose, but it’s true nonetheless. If you don’t travel, chances are very good you aren’t taking full advantage of everything your travel card has to offer.

That’s not to say you can’t get some use out of a travel card even without traveling. There are several ways to redeem travel rewards without actually going anywhere. But all the extras these cards tend to come with, like airport lounge access or hotel status, are going to be of limited utility.

If this is you: If you don’t actually travel, consider a rewards strategy that focuses on cash back cards. You can easily maximize your cash back with a few cards, and you won’t need to worry about trying to redeem any points or miles.

2. You aren’t using the credits

Nearly all of the best travel rewards credit cards offer some type of statement credits for something. It might be $50 back for a hotel booking, or $20 a month on Uber purchases, or even $300 for travel in general.

Whatever the case, these credits are usually a big part of making those huge annual fees worth paying. If you aren’t using enough of your card’s credits, then you may not actually be getting your money’s worth out of that fee.

If this is you: Why pay for something you’re not using? Consider downgrading your card to one with a lower annual fee. Alternatively, cancel your pricey card and go for a travel card with no annual fee.

3. Your home airport doesn’t have lounges

Another big part of covering the cost of those $400 (or more) annual fees is the airport lounge access. This can be a remarkably valuable perk, saving frequent flyers hundreds of dollars a year. But this perk is only as valuable as your access. What if the airports you visit the most don’t have any accessible lounges?

Sure, if your home airport is somewhere like JFK, which sports 19 different lounges across multiple lounge networks — well, yeah, you have options. But what if you’re flying out of a small regional airport? Or, heck, maybe you’re flying through Chicago (ORD), which has 16 lounges — but nothing for most cardholders unless you’re flying Delta or internationally.

If this is you: If you travel a lot and want lounge access, check out other cards with the offering to see if it opens up access for you. Otherwise, consider cards with lower annual fees, then use the money you save to buy day passes when you travel.

You gotta kiss a lot of frogs

A small number of credit cards get a lot of the hype. Sure, they generally deserve it; those cards are all popular for a reason. That doesn’t mean they’re the best card for everyone, however.

Finding the right cards for your wallet isn’t always easy, and you may not get it right every time. Happily, you aren’t stuck with the card when you make a wrong choice. You can always downgrade, product change, or even cancel the card to find a better fit.

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The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.Brittney Myers has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Uber Technologies. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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